SELF-PROCLAIMED EXISTENCE

"Self-Proclaimed Existence" is the debut full-length studio album by Polish black/death metal act Sammath Naur. The album was released through Empire Records in December 2005. Formed in the town of Bydgoszcz in 1999, the band have released a couple of demos before releasing this debut album.

The music on the album is black/death metal with both progressive and symphonic leanings. The music style is actually hard to pin down as Sammath Naur is quite the adventurous act. They include a lot of different genre elements in their music. The vocals are both growling and black metal raspy and the music can be both brutal and more sophisticated. Keyboards are prominant in the band´s sound but the music is only occasionally symphonic. The sound production is a bit murky and it´s especially hard to hear what´s going on during blast beat sections. There´s atmosphere here though and therefore the issue with the sound production isn´t a major one.

The band are really well playing in addition to writing some intriguing music so that´s also a positive and overall I´d say "Self-Proclaimed Existence" is a very promising debut album by Sammath Naur. There is room for improvement but the album is perfectly enjoyable as it is and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.